*** EXAM RESULTS ***
Enhorabuena a todos los estudiantes que han aprobado el examen oficial de CAMBRIDGE BUSINESS ENGLISH CERTIFICATE (BEC). Todos los estudiantes que se han presentado al examen recibirán un certificado oficial de Cambridge, cada uno con el correspondiente nivel de Business English que ha aprobado.
En el BEC se evalúan las cuatro destrezas del idioma - comprensión auditiva y de lectura, expresión oral y escrita - en un contexto profesional. El examen no es fácil, por lo tanto …
¡ Bien Hecho !
martes, 19 de julio de 2011
jueves, 14 de julio de 2011
Finance&Economics: EU debt crisis threatens Spain bank IPOs
EU debt crisis threatens Spain bank IPOs
By The Financial Times
The escalation of Europe’s debt crisis is threatening to scupper stock market listings by two Spanish savings banks seen as crucial to the overhaul of Spain’s banking system.
Executives from Bankia, Spain’s largest unlisted savings bank, and its smaller rival Banca Cívica, are in the middle of selling €5bn ($7bn) worth of shares in deeply discounted initial public offerings needed to avoid partial nationalisation by the Spanish government.
Cívica, which is aiming to raise €844m, delayed its listing by 24 hours, on a day when the difference between Spanish and German government bond yields hit the highest level in the history of the euro.
A senior commercial banking executive said that they expected the Bankia IPO to be scrapped by Friday if the volatile market conditions continued as shares in listed Spanish lenders dropped for a second day.
Bankia remains officially confident that it will be able to complete its listing. Executives acknowledged that it was a grim time to try to launch an IPO, but said they believed Spanish institutions would support the process and buy shares in order to preserve the credibility of the country’s financial system.
The listing of Bankia, which was formed from a merger of Caja Madrid and six other regional Spanish savings banks, is viewed by Spanish officials as a key step in the government’s attempt to restructure the country’s financial system.
Senior executives at other banks have also said it is in their interest to see the IPO succeed given Bankia’s systemic importance.
“Many of the institutions involved have a vested interested in calming down the market,” said one Bankia executive. “Domestic institutions might see at this stage part of their future being dependent on this happening”.
Bankia has said that it had already seen a high level of subscription by the Spanish public, with the bank planning to sell 60 per cent of the offer to retail clients.
“The process is developing very satisfactorily,” said Rodrigo Rato, Bankia executive chairman and former International Monetary Fund managing director, on Monday. Mr Rato said that the tranche of the listing to be sold to institutional investors had almost been covered, and noted interest from fund managers in the UK, France, Germany and other European countries.
Many of Spain’s cajas, run as private foundations and have no conventional outside investors, have suffered severe losses after the collapse of Spain’s housing and construction boom ended a decade of cheap lending to developers and property speculators.
Bankia has priced its listing at a 54 per cent discount to its book value, with Cívica offering a discount of 60 per cent, decisions reflecting both lenders’ recognition of the need to assuage investors’ concerns about the Spanish economy.
By The Financial Times
The escalation of Europe’s debt crisis is threatening to scupper stock market listings by two Spanish savings banks seen as crucial to the overhaul of Spain’s banking system.
Executives from Bankia, Spain’s largest unlisted savings bank, and its smaller rival Banca Cívica, are in the middle of selling €5bn ($7bn) worth of shares in deeply discounted initial public offerings needed to avoid partial nationalisation by the Spanish government.
Cívica, which is aiming to raise €844m, delayed its listing by 24 hours, on a day when the difference between Spanish and German government bond yields hit the highest level in the history of the euro.
A senior commercial banking executive said that they expected the Bankia IPO to be scrapped by Friday if the volatile market conditions continued as shares in listed Spanish lenders dropped for a second day.
Bankia remains officially confident that it will be able to complete its listing. Executives acknowledged that it was a grim time to try to launch an IPO, but said they believed Spanish institutions would support the process and buy shares in order to preserve the credibility of the country’s financial system.
The listing of Bankia, which was formed from a merger of Caja Madrid and six other regional Spanish savings banks, is viewed by Spanish officials as a key step in the government’s attempt to restructure the country’s financial system.
Senior executives at other banks have also said it is in their interest to see the IPO succeed given Bankia’s systemic importance.
“Many of the institutions involved have a vested interested in calming down the market,” said one Bankia executive. “Domestic institutions might see at this stage part of their future being dependent on this happening”.
Bankia has said that it had already seen a high level of subscription by the Spanish public, with the bank planning to sell 60 per cent of the offer to retail clients.
“The process is developing very satisfactorily,” said Rodrigo Rato, Bankia executive chairman and former International Monetary Fund managing director, on Monday. Mr Rato said that the tranche of the listing to be sold to institutional investors had almost been covered, and noted interest from fund managers in the UK, France, Germany and other European countries.
Many of Spain’s cajas, run as private foundations and have no conventional outside investors, have suffered severe losses after the collapse of Spain’s housing and construction boom ended a decade of cheap lending to developers and property speculators.
Bankia has priced its listing at a 54 per cent discount to its book value, with Cívica offering a discount of 60 per cent, decisions reflecting both lenders’ recognition of the need to assuage investors’ concerns about the Spanish economy.
jueves, 7 de julio de 2011
Current Affairs: NEWSPAPER SCANDAL IN UK - Murdoch: NOTW to close after Sunday
NEWSPAPER SCANDAL IN UK - Murdoch: NOTW to close after Sunday
The Independent
The News of the World will close after a final edition this weekend, News International chairman James Murdoch said today.
The tabloid newspaper will be published for the last time on Sunday after it was rocked by the phone hacking scandal.
Mr Murdoch said in a statement: "Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper. This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World."
The shock development came as police said there could be as many as 4,000 victims of phone hacking by the paper, which has been published for 168 years.
Mr Murdoch said this Sunday's edition of the News of the World would have no commercial advertisements and all the revenue from sales would go to good causes.
He praised the paper's achievements but condemned this week's revelations that phone hacking victims may have included murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, bereaved military families and relatives of 7/7 bombing victims.
He said: "The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong.
"Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company."
Mr Murdoch admitted that the paper's internal inquiry into earlier phone hacking claims was inadequate.
News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 after plotting to intercept voicemail messages left for royal aides.
Mr Murdoch accepted that the paper made statements to Parliament "without being in the full possession of the facts" and said he wrongly approved out-of-court settlements without having a "complete picture" of what had happened.
He went on: "The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.
"In 2006, the police focused their investigations on two men. Both went to jail. But the News of the World and News International failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose.
"Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.
"As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter.
"We now have voluntarily given evidence to the police that I believe will prove that this was untrue and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences. This was not the only fault.
"The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong.
"The company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret."
Labour MP Tom Watson told Sky News: "Let's be clear about this, this paper has closed but the hacking saga has not.
"The issue for me today is not whether Rupert Murdoch closes a paper that was going to go bankrupt because there are no advertisers or readers left, it is whether Rebekah Brooks is going to consider her position and resign as chief executive of News International.
"The anger will only subside when a very senior executive in this company takes responsibility for this heinous attack on British people."
Mr Watson added: "There are only two people in the country left who are supporting Rebekah Brooks today - Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron. I'm surprised she even bothered turning up to work this morning."
The MP said: "No one was going to buy this paper any more. No one was going to advertise in it. They destroyed it. The people who were hacking phones, they were the people who closed this paper.
"I feel very sorry for honest journalists who are left at the paper and I actually have a degree of sympathy for the outgoing editor Colin Myler who, I think frankly has had to carry a heavy load for the wrongdoing of other people in the organisation."
Addressing News of the World staff, Mr Murdoch said he wanted all News International's journalism to be "beyond reproach".
He made it clear that some people would lose their jobs as a result of the paper's closure.
He said: "Many of you, if not the vast majority of you, are either new to the company or have had no connection to the News of the World during the years when egregious behaviour occurred.
"I can understand how unfair these decisions may feel. Particularly for colleagues who will leave the company. Of course we will communicate next steps in detail and begin appropriate consultations.
"You may see these changes as a price loyal staff at the News of the World are paying for the transgressions of others. So please hear me when I say that your good work is a credit to journalism.
"I do not want the legitimacy of what you do to be compromised by acts of others. I want all journalism at News International to be beyond reproach.
"I insist that this organisation lives up to the standard of behaviour we expect of others. And, finally, I want you all to know that it is critical that the integrity of every journalist who has played fairly is restored."
Mr Murdoch said News International was co-operating "fully and actively" with the two Scotland Yard inquiries into allegations of phone hacking and payments to police officers.
He said the company acknowledged it had made mistakes and was doing its "utmost" to "fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again".
The revelations over murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler sparked a trail of further damaging headlines which prompted nationwide fury.
Tonight's bombshell closure announcement came hours after the the Royal British Legion dropped the News of the World as its campaigning partner and expressed "revulsion" at the latest phone hacking allegations.
As the day went on more and more advertisers - including some of Britain's biggest companies - said they were pulling their campaigns from the title.
The political and commercial pressures had been mounting on News International all week with dozens of MPs, including Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying chief executive Rebekah Brooks had to go.
The crisis deepened after Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said evidence from the company listed illegal payments being made to police officers.
The closure comes a day after Rupert Murdoch said phone hacking at one of his flagship newspapers was "deplorable and unacceptable".
Also yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron ordered a public inquiry into the scandal.
The Independent
The News of the World will close after a final edition this weekend, News International chairman James Murdoch said today.
The tabloid newspaper will be published for the last time on Sunday after it was rocked by the phone hacking scandal.
Mr Murdoch said in a statement: "Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper. This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World."
The shock development came as police said there could be as many as 4,000 victims of phone hacking by the paper, which has been published for 168 years.
Mr Murdoch said this Sunday's edition of the News of the World would have no commercial advertisements and all the revenue from sales would go to good causes.
He praised the paper's achievements but condemned this week's revelations that phone hacking victims may have included murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, bereaved military families and relatives of 7/7 bombing victims.
He said: "The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong.
"Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company."
Mr Murdoch admitted that the paper's internal inquiry into earlier phone hacking claims was inadequate.
News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 after plotting to intercept voicemail messages left for royal aides.
Mr Murdoch accepted that the paper made statements to Parliament "without being in the full possession of the facts" and said he wrongly approved out-of-court settlements without having a "complete picture" of what had happened.
He went on: "The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.
"In 2006, the police focused their investigations on two men. Both went to jail. But the News of the World and News International failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose.
"Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.
"As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter.
"We now have voluntarily given evidence to the police that I believe will prove that this was untrue and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences. This was not the only fault.
"The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong.
"The company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret."
Labour MP Tom Watson told Sky News: "Let's be clear about this, this paper has closed but the hacking saga has not.
"The issue for me today is not whether Rupert Murdoch closes a paper that was going to go bankrupt because there are no advertisers or readers left, it is whether Rebekah Brooks is going to consider her position and resign as chief executive of News International.
"The anger will only subside when a very senior executive in this company takes responsibility for this heinous attack on British people."
Mr Watson added: "There are only two people in the country left who are supporting Rebekah Brooks today - Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron. I'm surprised she even bothered turning up to work this morning."
The MP said: "No one was going to buy this paper any more. No one was going to advertise in it. They destroyed it. The people who were hacking phones, they were the people who closed this paper.
"I feel very sorry for honest journalists who are left at the paper and I actually have a degree of sympathy for the outgoing editor Colin Myler who, I think frankly has had to carry a heavy load for the wrongdoing of other people in the organisation."
Addressing News of the World staff, Mr Murdoch said he wanted all News International's journalism to be "beyond reproach".
He made it clear that some people would lose their jobs as a result of the paper's closure.
He said: "Many of you, if not the vast majority of you, are either new to the company or have had no connection to the News of the World during the years when egregious behaviour occurred.
"I can understand how unfair these decisions may feel. Particularly for colleagues who will leave the company. Of course we will communicate next steps in detail and begin appropriate consultations.
"You may see these changes as a price loyal staff at the News of the World are paying for the transgressions of others. So please hear me when I say that your good work is a credit to journalism.
"I do not want the legitimacy of what you do to be compromised by acts of others. I want all journalism at News International to be beyond reproach.
"I insist that this organisation lives up to the standard of behaviour we expect of others. And, finally, I want you all to know that it is critical that the integrity of every journalist who has played fairly is restored."
Mr Murdoch said News International was co-operating "fully and actively" with the two Scotland Yard inquiries into allegations of phone hacking and payments to police officers.
He said the company acknowledged it had made mistakes and was doing its "utmost" to "fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again".
The revelations over murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler sparked a trail of further damaging headlines which prompted nationwide fury.
Tonight's bombshell closure announcement came hours after the the Royal British Legion dropped the News of the World as its campaigning partner and expressed "revulsion" at the latest phone hacking allegations.
As the day went on more and more advertisers - including some of Britain's biggest companies - said they were pulling their campaigns from the title.
The political and commercial pressures had been mounting on News International all week with dozens of MPs, including Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying chief executive Rebekah Brooks had to go.
The crisis deepened after Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said evidence from the company listed illegal payments being made to police officers.
The closure comes a day after Rupert Murdoch said phone hacking at one of his flagship newspapers was "deplorable and unacceptable".
Also yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron ordered a public inquiry into the scandal.
Finance&Economics: Europe lashes out over downgrades
Europe lashes out over downgrades
By The Financial Times
Senior European officials lashed out at Moody’s on Wednesday, questioning the timing of the debt rating agency’s downgrade of Portuguese bonds this week and threatening new regulatory action against all three major rating agencies.
The high-profile criticism follows long-simmering European complaints about Moody’s and its two competitors, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, centring on whether they have improperly attempted to influence policy-making in the ongoing debt crisis.
The Portuguese downgrade – four notches to “junk” status – comes amidst a heated debate over how hard to push private owners of Greek debt to delay repayments from Athens. José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, questioned the timing, and said Moody’s was guilty of “mistakes and exaggerations”.
“I deeply regret the decision … and I regret it both in terms of its timing and its magnitude,” Mr Barroso said. “With all due respect to that specific rating agency, our institutions know Portugal a little bit better.”
On Tuesday, Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and François Baroin, French finance minister, sought to downplay Moody’s decision, saying it would not affect their decision-making.
But Mr Barroso’s comments, along with similar remarks Wednesday by Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, appeared a concerted change in tenor, with both men arguing that efforts to reduce the agencies’ power would gain momentum.
“We can’t understand the basis of this announcement,” Mr Schäuble said. “We have to break the oligopoly of the ratings agencies.”
Eurozone markets were hit hard on Wednesday following the downgrade. Portuguese bond yields, which have an inverse relationship with prices, saw one of the biggest daily surges this year and French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud was forced to pull debt deals.
More worryingly, Italian 10-year yields jumped above 5 per cent for the first time since November 2008. Contagion to Italy could threaten the entire euro project because of the size of its economy.
Rating agencies defended their decisions, with a Moody’s spokesman saying the agency’s continues “providing independent, objective assessments of credit risk on debt securities”. S&P said: “We are focused on our role of providing investors with an independent and globally consistent view of creditworthiness, based on our published criteria.”
Some analysts accused European officials of attempting to distract voters and financial markets from their difficulties in formulating an effective response to the crisis.
“EU leaders will be well advised to stop blaming ratings agencies for their own shambolic handling of the euro area crisis,” said Sony Kapoor, head of Re-Define, an economic consultancy.
The European complaints echo similar criticisms made by Washington in April, when S&P cut its outlook for US bonds in the midst of budget negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans. At the time, senior US Treasury officials questioned the timing and accused S&P of being misinformed about the budget talks.
European officials have argued that downgrades have frequently coincided with high-profile meetings of European leaders – evidence, they believe, of agency politicisation.
Greek debt was downgraded by S&P a week before last month’s summit of EU heads of government, for instance, and by Moody’s four days before a special summit of eurozone leaders in March. Fitch downgraded Portuguese debt the day of another March EU summit, and Moody’s downgraded Irish debt on the day of a December summit.
“The credit rating agencies are playing politics not economics,” said a senior EU official. “The timings of the downgrades are not a coincidence.”
By The Financial Times
Senior European officials lashed out at Moody’s on Wednesday, questioning the timing of the debt rating agency’s downgrade of Portuguese bonds this week and threatening new regulatory action against all three major rating agencies.
The high-profile criticism follows long-simmering European complaints about Moody’s and its two competitors, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, centring on whether they have improperly attempted to influence policy-making in the ongoing debt crisis.
The Portuguese downgrade – four notches to “junk” status – comes amidst a heated debate over how hard to push private owners of Greek debt to delay repayments from Athens. José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, questioned the timing, and said Moody’s was guilty of “mistakes and exaggerations”.
“I deeply regret the decision … and I regret it both in terms of its timing and its magnitude,” Mr Barroso said. “With all due respect to that specific rating agency, our institutions know Portugal a little bit better.”
On Tuesday, Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and François Baroin, French finance minister, sought to downplay Moody’s decision, saying it would not affect their decision-making.
But Mr Barroso’s comments, along with similar remarks Wednesday by Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, appeared a concerted change in tenor, with both men arguing that efforts to reduce the agencies’ power would gain momentum.
“We can’t understand the basis of this announcement,” Mr Schäuble said. “We have to break the oligopoly of the ratings agencies.”
Eurozone markets were hit hard on Wednesday following the downgrade. Portuguese bond yields, which have an inverse relationship with prices, saw one of the biggest daily surges this year and French toll road operator Autoroutes du Sud was forced to pull debt deals.
More worryingly, Italian 10-year yields jumped above 5 per cent for the first time since November 2008. Contagion to Italy could threaten the entire euro project because of the size of its economy.
Rating agencies defended their decisions, with a Moody’s spokesman saying the agency’s continues “providing independent, objective assessments of credit risk on debt securities”. S&P said: “We are focused on our role of providing investors with an independent and globally consistent view of creditworthiness, based on our published criteria.”
Some analysts accused European officials of attempting to distract voters and financial markets from their difficulties in formulating an effective response to the crisis.
“EU leaders will be well advised to stop blaming ratings agencies for their own shambolic handling of the euro area crisis,” said Sony Kapoor, head of Re-Define, an economic consultancy.
The European complaints echo similar criticisms made by Washington in April, when S&P cut its outlook for US bonds in the midst of budget negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans. At the time, senior US Treasury officials questioned the timing and accused S&P of being misinformed about the budget talks.
European officials have argued that downgrades have frequently coincided with high-profile meetings of European leaders – evidence, they believe, of agency politicisation.
Greek debt was downgraded by S&P a week before last month’s summit of EU heads of government, for instance, and by Moody’s four days before a special summit of eurozone leaders in March. Fitch downgraded Portuguese debt the day of another March EU summit, and Moody’s downgraded Irish debt on the day of a December summit.
“The credit rating agencies are playing politics not economics,” said a senior EU official. “The timings of the downgrades are not a coincidence.”
Current Affairs: Codex Calixtinus book 'disappears' from Spain cathedral
Codex Calixtinus book 'disappears' from Spain cathedral
BBC
A hugely valuable illuminated manuscript has disappeared from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, say police.
The Codex Calixtinus dates from the 12th Century and was compiled as a guidebook for medieval pilgrims following the Way of Saint James.
This is the oldest copy of the manuscript and is unsaleable on the open market.
Only a handful of people had access to the room in which it was kept.
This edition of the Codex Calixtinus is thought to date from around 1150.
Its purpose was largely practical - to collect advice of use to pilgrims heading to the shrine there. It also included sermons and homilies to St James.
On Wednesday afternoon, the book was reported missing from the room where it is kept.
"We are investigating its disappearance," a police spokeswoman said, according to AFP news agency.
"It is usually kept in a room to which only half a dozen people have access," she said.
The Codex is only brought out on special occasions, such as last year's visit of Pope Benedict, when it is closely guarded.
If the work has been stolen, it will be impossible to sell it on the open market, says the BBC's arts reporter Vincent Dowd.
BBC
A hugely valuable illuminated manuscript has disappeared from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, say police.
The Codex Calixtinus dates from the 12th Century and was compiled as a guidebook for medieval pilgrims following the Way of Saint James.
This is the oldest copy of the manuscript and is unsaleable on the open market.
Only a handful of people had access to the room in which it was kept.
This edition of the Codex Calixtinus is thought to date from around 1150.
Its purpose was largely practical - to collect advice of use to pilgrims heading to the shrine there. It also included sermons and homilies to St James.
On Wednesday afternoon, the book was reported missing from the room where it is kept.
"We are investigating its disappearance," a police spokeswoman said, according to AFP news agency.
"It is usually kept in a room to which only half a dozen people have access," she said.
The Codex is only brought out on special occasions, such as last year's visit of Pope Benedict, when it is closely guarded.
If the work has been stolen, it will be impossible to sell it on the open market, says the BBC's arts reporter Vincent Dowd.
miércoles, 6 de julio de 2011
Current Affairs: Huge crowds launch Spain's Pamplona bull-run fiesta
Huge crowds launch Spain's Pamplona bull-run fiesta
AFP
Tens of thousands of revellers packed Pamplona and soaked each other in sangria Wednesday to kick off Spain's best-known fiesta: the San Fermin bull-running festival.
Swilling gallons of beer, wine and sangria, Spaniards and foreigners jammed into the main Plaza del Ayuntamiento to hear the traditional shout from a City Hall balcony: "Viva San Fermin".
Seconds later, a firecracker known as the "chupinazo" detonated, setting set off celebrations among a writhing mass of people dressed in white with red handkerchiefs, who sprayed each other with sangria.
The frenzy marked the start of a nine-day festival charged with alcohol, and laced with danger.
The most courageous, or inebriated, of the revellers are drawn by the daily thrill of being chased through the northern city's streets from a pack of huge, charging bulls.
It's a combination expected to draw more than a million tourists to Pamplona, popularised worldwide by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises.
Party-goers were already drinking copious amounts of alcohol before the official start, squeezed into the main square. Some sat on friends' shoulders. One woman had stripped to the waist.
"I'm here to have fun, to enjoy with the locals and to run with the bulls," said 24-year-old Australian Adam Espron, wearing yellow sunglasses.
Two large glasses of sangria in his hands, Californian tourist David Panijelene was euphoric. "It is the first time for me. Today is my birthday," he said.
The festival's first bull run will be held at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) on Thursday, when hundreds of people race ahead of six fighting bulls and six steers stampeding through an 848.6-metre course from a holding pen to the city's bull ring.
The bull run takes on average just under four minutes, with 2,000 to 3,500 runners daring to get as close as possible without being trampled or pierced by the beasts' horns.
Every year between 200 and 300 participants are injured. Most are hurt after falling but some are trampled or gored by the bulls despite increased safety measures.
The most recent death occurred two years ago when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard to death, piercing his neck, heart and lungs with its horns in front of the hordes of tourists.
This year organisers have launched a free iPhone app in English to help revellers to assess the chances that they will emerge from the festival unharmed.
It asks users about their behaviour at the festival, including how much they have had to drink and how many hours of sleep they have received.
The daily bull runs are the highlight of the festival, which ends July 14, but there is also dancing and drinking, lots and lots of drinking.
In the evening the beasts are killed in the bull ring and their meat is served up in city restaurants.
The city of some 200,000 residents expects the number of people who will take part in the festival this year will be at least as much as last year when 1.5 million people turned out and hotels reported a 95-percent occupancy rate.
The official opening of the festival and the morning bull runs are broadcast live on public television, drawing millions of viewers.
AFP
Tens of thousands of revellers packed Pamplona and soaked each other in sangria Wednesday to kick off Spain's best-known fiesta: the San Fermin bull-running festival.
Swilling gallons of beer, wine and sangria, Spaniards and foreigners jammed into the main Plaza del Ayuntamiento to hear the traditional shout from a City Hall balcony: "Viva San Fermin".
Seconds later, a firecracker known as the "chupinazo" detonated, setting set off celebrations among a writhing mass of people dressed in white with red handkerchiefs, who sprayed each other with sangria.
The frenzy marked the start of a nine-day festival charged with alcohol, and laced with danger.
The most courageous, or inebriated, of the revellers are drawn by the daily thrill of being chased through the northern city's streets from a pack of huge, charging bulls.
It's a combination expected to draw more than a million tourists to Pamplona, popularised worldwide by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises.
Party-goers were already drinking copious amounts of alcohol before the official start, squeezed into the main square. Some sat on friends' shoulders. One woman had stripped to the waist.
"I'm here to have fun, to enjoy with the locals and to run with the bulls," said 24-year-old Australian Adam Espron, wearing yellow sunglasses.
Two large glasses of sangria in his hands, Californian tourist David Panijelene was euphoric. "It is the first time for me. Today is my birthday," he said.
The festival's first bull run will be held at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) on Thursday, when hundreds of people race ahead of six fighting bulls and six steers stampeding through an 848.6-metre course from a holding pen to the city's bull ring.
The bull run takes on average just under four minutes, with 2,000 to 3,500 runners daring to get as close as possible without being trampled or pierced by the beasts' horns.
Every year between 200 and 300 participants are injured. Most are hurt after falling but some are trampled or gored by the bulls despite increased safety measures.
The most recent death occurred two years ago when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard to death, piercing his neck, heart and lungs with its horns in front of the hordes of tourists.
This year organisers have launched a free iPhone app in English to help revellers to assess the chances that they will emerge from the festival unharmed.
It asks users about their behaviour at the festival, including how much they have had to drink and how many hours of sleep they have received.
The daily bull runs are the highlight of the festival, which ends July 14, but there is also dancing and drinking, lots and lots of drinking.
In the evening the beasts are killed in the bull ring and their meat is served up in city restaurants.
The city of some 200,000 residents expects the number of people who will take part in the festival this year will be at least as much as last year when 1.5 million people turned out and hotels reported a 95-percent occupancy rate.
The official opening of the festival and the morning bull runs are broadcast live on public television, drawing millions of viewers.
Current Affairs: Spain's indignados have new focus: blocking evictions
Spain's indignados have new focus: blocking evictions
REUTERS
More than 200 chanting protesters gathered in a Madrid neighbourhood on Wednesday, preventing the eviction of an unemployed woman and her two children, one of whom is disabled.
The demonstration was part of a new wave of protests sweeping Spain, in which groups gather at unemployed people's homes to block their eviction, raising pressure on politicians to help a million Spaniards struggling to pay their mortgages.
The movement gathered steam in May as part of the "indignados" (indignant) protests against the government's spending cuts, failure to revive the moribund economy, and the European Union's highest unemployment rate of 21 percent.
"With the housing bubble burst and unemployment rising, people have had to make a choice -- either they feed their children or they pay the mortgage," said protester David Cobo, a member of a mortgage victims' group called Affected by the Mortgage, shouting above the noise of the crowd.
There are several such protests around Spain every week, organised through social media. In dozens of cases crowds have successfully blocked entry to the building, making it impossible for an official to deliver a court order for eviction.
Of around 300,000 people kicked out of their homes in the last two years, most are among Spain's nearly five million unemployed. Unemployment benefits stop after about two years, leaving many with little or no income.
Last week the government announced measures to help those struggling with high mortgage payments, but consumer advocates said the moves would help only a handful of those pushed to their financial limits.
The ruling Socialists are likely to be defeated in elections due by March 2012, and officials have begun criticising the banks, the major mortgage lenders. Consumer groups dismiss their attacks as mere rhetoric.
Opinion polls show most Spaniards, on both left and right, feel the political class has failed to provide real solutions to the economic crisis.
The government's borrowing costs have soared as international investors worry that Spain could head into a fiscal crisis and need a bailout, like Ireland, Greece and Portugal. The government has responded by cost cutting that has angered Spaniards and hampered economic growth.
HOUSEHOLD DEBT BURDEN
The value of mortgage debt roughly doubled in the five years to 2009, according to Bank of Spain data, as Spaniards were enticed onto the housing bandwagon by easy loan conditions.
"Everyone speculated in some way, giving the impression that prices were going to keep on rising for ever," said Fernando Encinar, analyst at real estate firm Idealista.com.
Property prices have fallen 16 percent in Madrid since the peak of the boom in 2007, and the drop makes it impossible for many to sell their homes without remaining saddled with debt.
Under Spanish law, if a bank forecloses on a home and evicts the borrower, the former homeowner still owes the balance of the mortgage to the bank.
That has kept the property market from an even sharper fall, as borrowers try to hang on to their home no matter what. As a result the Spanish banking sector has stayed afloat, though badly in need of capital .
The overall national level of bad mortgage debt is very low at 2.6 percent of total mortgages, as Spaniards struggle to keep up repayments by renegotiating terms or digging into savings.
"The main problem is not that Spain's (mortgage) law differs so dramatically from other countries. The issue is that Spain has been so much more exposed to the property bubble, and that prices have started to come down while unemployment has gone up massively," said Idealista's Encinar.
Conventional wisdom in Spain has always been that renting was throwing money away. Spanish home ownership is high compared with other countries at 85 percent, according to property firms.
That makes it difficult for any government, of left or right, to draw up a policy which takes the steam out of property prices.
MAKING ENDS MEET
Banking customers' association ADICAE estimates that more than one million families face severe mortgage payment problems, and says many Spaniards are eating in soup kitchens so they can keep up their mortgage payments.
Anti-eviction groups have managed to stop banks and lawyers from repossessing property in dozens of cases, though banks often serve a new notice of eviction some months down the line. So far there has been no violence and police involvement has been limited.
"I'm here because I'm sick of the same people always being at risk while the banks always seem to get away with it," said Javier Gallego, a 41-year-old sound technician who took part in Wednesday's protest in Madrid.
Official data released on Wednesday showed the property hangover could continue for years to come, with about 700,000 properties still empty across Spain at the end of 2010, three years after the boom ended.
REUTERS
More than 200 chanting protesters gathered in a Madrid neighbourhood on Wednesday, preventing the eviction of an unemployed woman and her two children, one of whom is disabled.
The demonstration was part of a new wave of protests sweeping Spain, in which groups gather at unemployed people's homes to block their eviction, raising pressure on politicians to help a million Spaniards struggling to pay their mortgages.
The movement gathered steam in May as part of the "indignados" (indignant) protests against the government's spending cuts, failure to revive the moribund economy, and the European Union's highest unemployment rate of 21 percent.
"With the housing bubble burst and unemployment rising, people have had to make a choice -- either they feed their children or they pay the mortgage," said protester David Cobo, a member of a mortgage victims' group called Affected by the Mortgage, shouting above the noise of the crowd.
There are several such protests around Spain every week, organised through social media. In dozens of cases crowds have successfully blocked entry to the building, making it impossible for an official to deliver a court order for eviction.
Of around 300,000 people kicked out of their homes in the last two years, most are among Spain's nearly five million unemployed. Unemployment benefits stop after about two years, leaving many with little or no income.
Last week the government announced measures to help those struggling with high mortgage payments, but consumer advocates said the moves would help only a handful of those pushed to their financial limits.
The ruling Socialists are likely to be defeated in elections due by March 2012, and officials have begun criticising the banks, the major mortgage lenders. Consumer groups dismiss their attacks as mere rhetoric.
Opinion polls show most Spaniards, on both left and right, feel the political class has failed to provide real solutions to the economic crisis.
The government's borrowing costs have soared as international investors worry that Spain could head into a fiscal crisis and need a bailout, like Ireland, Greece and Portugal. The government has responded by cost cutting that has angered Spaniards and hampered economic growth.
HOUSEHOLD DEBT BURDEN
The value of mortgage debt roughly doubled in the five years to 2009, according to Bank of Spain data, as Spaniards were enticed onto the housing bandwagon by easy loan conditions.
"Everyone speculated in some way, giving the impression that prices were going to keep on rising for ever," said Fernando Encinar, analyst at real estate firm Idealista.com.
Property prices have fallen 16 percent in Madrid since the peak of the boom in 2007, and the drop makes it impossible for many to sell their homes without remaining saddled with debt.
Under Spanish law, if a bank forecloses on a home and evicts the borrower, the former homeowner still owes the balance of the mortgage to the bank.
That has kept the property market from an even sharper fall, as borrowers try to hang on to their home no matter what. As a result the Spanish banking sector has stayed afloat, though badly in need of capital .
The overall national level of bad mortgage debt is very low at 2.6 percent of total mortgages, as Spaniards struggle to keep up repayments by renegotiating terms or digging into savings.
"The main problem is not that Spain's (mortgage) law differs so dramatically from other countries. The issue is that Spain has been so much more exposed to the property bubble, and that prices have started to come down while unemployment has gone up massively," said Idealista's Encinar.
Conventional wisdom in Spain has always been that renting was throwing money away. Spanish home ownership is high compared with other countries at 85 percent, according to property firms.
That makes it difficult for any government, of left or right, to draw up a policy which takes the steam out of property prices.
MAKING ENDS MEET
Banking customers' association ADICAE estimates that more than one million families face severe mortgage payment problems, and says many Spaniards are eating in soup kitchens so they can keep up their mortgage payments.
Anti-eviction groups have managed to stop banks and lawyers from repossessing property in dozens of cases, though banks often serve a new notice of eviction some months down the line. So far there has been no violence and police involvement has been limited.
"I'm here because I'm sick of the same people always being at risk while the banks always seem to get away with it," said Javier Gallego, a 41-year-old sound technician who took part in Wednesday's protest in Madrid.
Official data released on Wednesday showed the property hangover could continue for years to come, with about 700,000 properties still empty across Spain at the end of 2010, three years after the boom ended.